The invention relates to a method for searching channels and to a satellite receiver.
EP-A-0821523 describes a method in a digital television signal receiver whereby a service table is composed of channel numbers currently on air.
To give the user the impression that a quick search through the whole frequency band is performed, only the channel number is increased (decreased) by continuously pressing the +(xe2x88x92) button, and only when the +/xe2x88x92 button is released the actual channel frequency of the chosen channel is used to obtain the chosen video/audio information.
A disadvantage of the known method and receiver is that to obtain a certain channel still the same considerably amount of time in needed, only the impression of a quicker search is obtained.
It is, inter alia, an object of the invention to provide a method and a receiver that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.
To this end a first aspect of the invention provides a method as defined in claim 1.
A second aspect of the invention provides a receiver as defined in claim 2.
By using information of existing transmission systems from a service channel stored in a user look-up table the search time is considerably reduced (the first step of the method). Further by using the second step of the method a receiver look up table is used to update the user look up table. The search through the relevant band has to be performed only with a subset of transmission parameters as where known at the moment the receiver was made. For example the receiver look up table can be stored in a chip. It is also possible to deliver updated chips when the information of the different satellites changes after some time. The last (third) step of the method comprises the present state of the art method to search channels.
An embodiment of a receiver according to the invention comprises the features of claim 3.
By using the method of searching the receiver will much more faster find the required satellite channel(s).